I finished the open holes on the top cowling, then removed the clecoes, countersunk the fiberglass and riveted those holes. I tested fitting it back on the plane and there was no distortion of any hinge material.
So I tackled the bottom cowling and completed that and refit that and it looks really great.
I then completed -- as much as the instructions allow anyway -- the oil filler door. The instructions have you put a washer on the bottom of the camlocs in place of the thin lock washers that usually go on there but I found I couldn't get the camloc to turn in the housing so I removed them.
Then I dug out the parts of the open/close mechanism, prepped the parts, assembled, and match drilled them to the cowling. There was a little interference with cowling material so I removed a small amount to allow the door to open and close freely. Looks great.
I then checked where the bent portion of the hinge pins for the aft bottom cowling hit the firewall and put blue RTV there to prevent any chafing.